Could you tell us more about this feature? Seems to be very promissor; in my previous experiences with Windows Defender it was quite heavy ...
I haven't found it to be that slow in Windows 10 (though it is a bit slower than say avira in my experience which I find to be very light). I game a fair bit and the difference in launch/load times is maybe a second or two at most and that's on the first launch (it seems to cache previously scanned files). Obviously everyone's experience (and hardware) is different though.
Sorry, this is all I could determine on my PC: "It does check known good to be still good, but this check is spawned when system is idle. These post execution checks still spike at 40% CPU (on my modest G3240 dual core)".
The out-of-box system impact score with enabled Windows Defender on Microsoft Windows 10 is 16.2 points https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/av-comparatives-performance-test-october-2015.381381/
There are two parts in the report you link to. In the PC Mark 8 part, they measure a system with no security and that is then set as 100 on the scale. With Windows Defender active they measure 98.8. A difference of 1.2 In AV-C's own test they have 7 categories, labeled "mediocre", "fast" and "very fast". The fastest product gets 1 "fast" and 6 "very fast". The second fastest product gets 2 "fast" and 5 "very fast". Windows Defender gets 4 "fast" and 3 "very fast". However, in order to make the graph look "spectacular", they grant each category 5 points. So suddenly the difference between 3 "fast" and 3 "very fast" are blown up to 15 points. In the graph it looks like a huge difference. If you read the accompanying text, then the actual difference are close to nothing.
On my system windows defender is a bit slower than other solutions like Avast or Avira for example (which are classified as the lightest by Av comparatives). I can notice that opening task manager or a folder with many executables inside. Although launching programs requires pretty the same time and also boot time with Defender is a bit faster. But I would say that on a fast system the difference among those products should be almost unnoticeable.
In my case, the only av lighter than Windows Defender (under Win 8.1 & 10) was Webroot when I tried it a couple years ago. However I ended up uninstalling the latter quickly because I felt terribly unsafe with it. Granted, it relies on cloud services and all that jazz but no. Too light to be true.
@jjc225 Yes, Windows Defender is included with Windows 8.x and 10, and is avilable for for Windows 7 as Microsoft Security Essentials.
@CoolWebSearch for a wilders member, i'd say it's good enough. but can't say the same goes for the average joe & jane though.
assuming a wilders member is no less than a tech savvy person, they would have no problems with it. but someone with less knowledge & experience about computers and without common sense required for techie stuff would need additional security measures. hope it's all clear now.
CoolWebSearch : You will be fine. And so will everybody else. The native security in Windows, and in Windows 10 especially, has reached a level where you can just use the OS as it was intended and stop worrying. There are sadly still a fair bit of fear mongering in tech-forums and in security-forums, being spread by users that think only third-party developers knows how to write code. Have a look in any MSE/Defender thread, and you will notice that it's the same handful of users who show up and has something negative to say. Just ignore it. It will take some time before such users realize how secure Windows has become.
Sadly there appears to be some who have never, or not recently, used WD yet feel compelled to post how slow and useless the program is. Back in around 2008 Norton was considered a resource hog, but with each new release Norton has become much lighter to today where it has an absolute minimum of impact on most machines, yet there are many who haven't tried any recent versions and still claim Norton is heavy. ... Haters gonna hate
Optiplex 755 about 7 years old: Windows 10 Pro: Run Windows Defender, Windows Firewall, MBAE free, MBAM free on side for occasional scans and Spyware Blaster installed. SMOOOOTH running and very efficient. I don't go anywhere on internet to invite trouble or open emails I am not familiar with. No problems!
Uninstalled avast because my Windows 10 started to freeze after installing it, so i'm going to use Defender for now..
Big thanks, Martin, I'm asking this, because I have finally installed Windows 10 Pro 64-bit on my new and fresh computer just last week.
